Watching You Burn
by Megan Reece
Summary: As a new day dawns in Big Burg, an old enemy rises from the ashes of a burning plot.  This time, he's willing to risk everything to get Ezekiel Zick and his phenomenal power.  Will Zick's family and friends be there for him when he needs them most?
1. Chapter 1

Hector Sinistro should have known that Zick's power was far too strong to be contained in any simple box. In fact, he did know. He doubted that anything was capable of holding even a fraction of that power besides the original vessel - the boy himself.

Hector had been at the very center of the phenomenal explosion when the box containing Zick's dom energy burst. How he survived, he still didn't know.

He had wanted it so badly. The energy, the power it was capable of, that the boy was _still_ capable of, made him tremble with desire. He'd been trapped in that damn dom box for so long, to finally make it out and discover the powerful gem waiting right in front of him, in the very house he'd been imprisoned in. If only he'd realized it at the time, he mused. From the point that he'd first seen Zick's power, Hector Sinistro had considered himself a very lucky man.

Even now, lying on the sandy shore he'd washed up on after the explosion, with half his face melted off and the rest of his body terribly scorched, he considered himself lucky.

The physical pain was mitigated by the burning sensation he felt in the pit of his stomach. The overwhelming yet airy sensation he knew by the name _desire_. Desire for strength, power, and fame. He loved the duplicity of it. It's lightness and it's burden. As he mused over the irony of the boy and his desire, a booming, guttural laugh escaped his charred lips. The effort of it weighed heavily upon his exhausted, maimed body, but didn't diminish his elation in the slightest.

He knew why he'd failed, too. The tantalizing taste of power made him stupid, made him play his hand early, without proper planning. It'd always had been his downfall, if he was being honest with himself. That's how he'd been imprisoned by Zick's grandfather in the first place.

But no, he wouldn't make the same mistake twice. He'd tried doing it the fast way, relying on a rag-tag bunch of incompetent black tamers, and look where that got him. The boy probably thought he'd lost his powers now, probably couldn't even see monsters. Hector grinned, imagining the boy's misery now that he was without the world of monsters. He knew that Zick would suffer now that he was out of the loop, no longer a tamer, no longer a part of the secret world of monsters.

This time, he'd be patient. He'd wait a lifetime for the right moment to grab the boy if necessary. He wanted Ezekiel Zick, and this time, he'd get the boy at any cost.


	2. Chapter 2: Two Broken Hearts

Zick sighed as he plopped down at his perfectly ordinary desk in his perfectly ordinary school. Today was going to be a bad day, he could tell. It was _that_ day again, the day he knew he'd never forget. It'd been two years exactly since the day he had lost his tamer powers, and Zick was now a whopping twelve years old, going on thirteen. He didn't feel like a normal thirteen year old though, even after he'd lost his powers.

His life had never been the same since that day, and he hated it. Of course, all the monsters had been very appreciative that he'd saved Bibbur-si so many times, as they should be. But it had only been a few days after the incident before the tutors removed him from tamer school, and from the world of Bibbur-si entirely. The monsters in his house were nice enough to make themselves visible often (when they remembered), and Bombo still slobiverated all over his shoes, but nothing was the same. Everyone made sure that he was strictly kept out of any kind of serious monster business and treated like a helpless child in every way. Zick knew that they were acting differently towards him because they cared about him, and they didn't want him to get hurt.

He couldn't help thinking back to the time before Elena had become a keeper, when she was still a normal human. He had treated her like she was one of them. He had never tried to leave her out of an adventure without good reason. He wondered why everyone else couldn't treat him the same way now.

He glanced wistfully over at the empty desk beside him. The desk that he always reserved for Elena. The same desk that had been constantly empty for nearly two years now.

He'd become accustomed to the bitter sensation he felt whenever he thought about her, so much so that now all he felt was a vague, numb sadness. Elena hardly ever talked to him lately. Why would she, when she was a Keeper and he was a nothing? Of course, Elena had been grateful to him at first. They'd been closer than ever right after the incident with Sinistro, after he sacrificed everything for her. But over time, the two of them drifted further apart. Elena had always been fascinated with the world of monsters, and once Zick had lost his connection to that world, she just wasn't willing to slow down for him. And of course, she'd still attended Keeper school and hung out with all of their old friends, who no longer wanted to spend time with Zick. Zick had understood, though, and he was content with his trying his best to support her from the sidelines whenever she went adventuring with Teddie and Lay.

But then _he_ had appeared, and their friendship had been a slippery downhill slope ever since that moment. Approximately six months after Zick lost his powers, Elena had befriended a new tamer, who just so happened to attend the same school as them. His name was Erik, and Zick had disliked him from the very beginning. Zick had noticed Elena's fascination with him the very first time they had met. She had watched the new boy intently, never taking her gaze off him, hanging on his every word. Zick would've sworn left and right that the pangs he felt at seeing Elena's attentions directed elsewhere were not jealousy, but he was miserable all the same. Besides the general feeling of dislike and mistrust, Zick loathed the way Erik was completely unwilling to share any kind of information about himself, his past, or his family. Now, two years later, he still knew next to nothing about the tamer boy.

It hurt him infinitely to see how quickly Elena was willing to drift away from him, to let their friendship disintegrate. She had tried to include Zick in their adventures a little at first, but because he could no longer even see monsters, the tutors thought he was too much a liability to be running around chasing monsters. He was, after all, still a tamer, still half monster, and that made him a big, helpless target for anguanas and dark phantoms. For his own good, his family and friends decided, Zick had to be left completely out of the world of monsters.

He remembered the day his family had called him down from his room, each one of them looking at him with guilty eyes. They had told him that from that point on, the monster world was off limits completely. He was still allowed to talk to timothy and the other monsters in his house, but Greta and Zob monitored his time outside the house carefully, to make sure that he wouldn't unwittingly get nabbed by a hungry black phantom. Whenever any serious business about Bibbur-si had to be discussed, Zick was promptly sent back up to his room.

At first, he had felt betrayed. Betrayed that the people he cared about most, the people (and monsters) that he had fought so hard to protect were treating him like an outcast. He missed his old life, and every since he lost his powers, it had felt like something was missing from within himself. He felt light, unburdened, empty. Powerless, helpless... like he could float away at any moment, and no one would care if he did anyway.

That day, Zick had swallowed the lump in his throat, desperately held back the tears, and ran back up to his room. Before long he couldn't hold it back anymore, and he was soon sobbing into his pillows, wishing with all his heart and he could at least see his grandparents. They had always cheered him up when he felt down, for as long as he could remember.

Feeling alone, abandoned, and betrayed, it wasn't long before Zick cried himself to sleep.

* * *

><p>It was for <em>her.<em> It always had been, from the very beginning. Everything he did was for her. She knew it, too, and that's what made everything so _hard_. The burden, the guilt, it was all too much for her to bear.

Elena hated that moment, when Zick gave everything for her. It was so beautiful, so sacrificial, but in a way still so selfish. He had given up so much for her sake, had always taken care of her, had constantly tried his best to both protect her from and include her in his world. He was amazing, talented, and powerful. She was clumsy, loud, annoying, and nosy. Although she loved him, she knew that she would never be worthy of him or his protection.

When he gave everything up for her - his life, his family, _himself_... it was just too much for her. The burden of guilt weighed heavily on her every day, not lessening in the slightest by the passage of time. Even now, two years later, Elena couldn't hold back the bile that rose in her throat whenever she looked at him. That's not to say she didn't look - she watched him all the time. She always made sure to sit behind him in class, so she could watch him without him watching her back. It was too painful when their eyes met. She had pushed her way into his life, and as a result, his life was the one that had been ruined. She figured the only thing she could do now was to distance herself from him, to stop causing problems for all of them. She knew it would hurt him, heck, it'd hurt her so much too, but she was tired of being the cause of his suffering. In some selfish way, she hated being in debt to him. She felt like a child, when all she wanted was to be an equal, to have a chance with him.

Erik's arrival had been a nice distraction. She'd finally been able to laugh again after meeting him, even if it was a bit strained. She tried her best to always keep busy, to keep her mind off of her feelings, off the loneliness and love that were constantly at war within her heart. She knew it was betrayal, too, shutting Zick out and letting a stranger into her life.

Elena figured that over time, both of their feelings, whether just friendship or perhaps love, would fade. Of course, two years later, Elena still looked out her window each night, just staring at his house, thinking about him. She still cried herself to sleep every night.


	3. Chapter 3: One Broken Body

Each day after school, Zick was supposed to walk straight home from school, no stops, no staying late to talk to friends or teachers. Neighborhoods or any kind of quiet street was strictly off limits to him. This mandate was only one of many similarly strict rules courtesy of his parents' and the tutors' fear of him becoming easy prey for anguanas, monster-ska, or dark phantoms that had every reason to hunt him.

Today, nearly two years after they'd imposed their laundry list of rules, each one constricting Zick's freedom to pursue his own social life and independence, he was finally sick and tired of it. His parents hadn't been spending much time with him lately, and he was lonely. He knew his parents didn't want to push him, and he knew they felt guilty for having to treat him like a baby, but he was hurt all the same. Not only had Zick lost many of his friends over those years, but he'd also lost his own freedom... and he felt like the shackles of "safety" were nearly choking him. Day after day, week after week, month after month, he couldn't shake the feeling of sickness and claustrophobia that his tiny, regimented life forced upon him.

Zick sighed, wondering if his life would always be like this, if he'd be allowed outside his house at all when he was older and stopped needing to go to school. He swallowed, realizing the ultimate outcome of that fate would be either insanity or... maybe even suicide, but he tried to push those thoughts out of his mind. Just one break from his routine wouldn't hurt, would it? His parents wouldn't worry too much, would they?

Zick chewed his fingernails, trying to fight the urge to just run down the street, find a nice hill overlooking Old Mill, and feel the windy freedom of just sitting and watching everything. It was, after all, the anniversary of that day, and he needed a break. Everything else was too painful - Elena, the monsters, his grandparents, his life... he needed to relax, and his house was anything but relaxing.

Against his better judgement, Zick took off in the opposite direction of his home as soon as the school's bell rang.

He only made it two blocks before he ran into trouble.

Zick abruptly skidded to a halt when he heard the sound. It was a sound he knew all too well from his old life. A high-pitched, guttural, keening noise that would split your ears if it were loud enough. And boy, was this one loud enough. Zick threw his hands over his ears as quickly as he could and tried to hold onto his lunch as waves of vertigo hit him.

He knew the sound to be that of a Bombo in pain, and he knew it must be in serious trouble for it's wails to be this loud, to reach him this far. Zick had never heard it so intensely before even after living with a Bombo for his entire life. He glanced around at the other pedestrians loitering about and was surprised to notice that none of them were reacting at all to the noise. He hadn't been able to hear monsters since the day he lost his powers unless the monsters wanted themselves heard, just like the times when they wanted themselves to be seen. He didn't have tamer powers, so he shouldn't be able to hear the Bombo unless everyone else could. But no one else appeared to have heard anything at all, which baffled Zick. A little hope began to rise in his heart, a hope that he thought he'd quenched long ago. He tried to remind himself that it wouldn't do any good to get excited over nothing, but he just couldn't quell the excitement that arose at the possibility of a thread of his powers, of his old life, returning.

As the noise died down a few decibels, he decided that his only option was to investigate.

Slinking down an alleyway that branched off from the main street, he inched forward cautiously, the noise growing louder with each step forward. His enthusiasm didn't quite block out all sense of self preservation, as he tried to stick to the shadows and move quietly, hoping to stay out of serious trouble. He came to a bend in the alley and crouched down behind a pair of trash cans, desperately trying to stay hidden from this as of yet unseen monster. His entire body was shaking at this point from the adrenaline caused by his excitement and fear.

Peeking out of the tops of the cans, he scanned the area. He couldn't see anything obvious, yet he could sense movement over in the opposite corner, and he could hear scuffling noises originating from the same area. To his dismay he realized that the monster was probably invisible to him, yet he wondered why he could hear it but not see it. Zick swallowed thickly, realizing that both the cries of the bombo and the clanging sounds were probably indicative of a struggle, and by the sounds of it, it wasn't going to end well. He wished desperately that he could see them - was it a scuffle between monsters? Maybe between monster-si and monster-ska? Or was it a dark phantom? The last thought had Zick's mind stop dead in it's tracks. It had to be a phantom, that's why there was only one lone monster crying. And if there was a dark phantom attacking a bombo, he was screwed. He had walked right into what his parents and the tutors had spent years trying to protect him from because he had been stupid, because he hadn't listened to them. He had wanted to think that he could get his powers back so badly, but all wishing ever did was get him into trouble. Zick wanted to smack his head against a brick wall. He absently wondered when he would ever get it into his thick skull that this was real life, not some movie, and miraculous things didn't happen to people like him. People like him didn't get their wishes granted.

But then Zick's mind wandered back to the poor bombo and how it was going to die if he just sat there quietly waiting for the dark phantom to go away. He hadn't thought that he had any shreds of a hero left in him before, but now he knew that he could never change the person he was - and he couldn't just let that poor bombo die helplessly when he had the power to stop it. Sure, he'd be risking his life, but since when was that anything new? Before, when he'd had power, he'd risked his life many times for both monsters and humans alike, for his parents, and for Elena.

Zick sighed, mustered his courage, and stood up.

"Hey, ya stupid phantom!" Zick yelled, as loudly as he could. Some small, sane part of him hoped he wouldn't be heard over the bombo's mind numbing shrieks. He pushed that part to the back of his mind as he edged closer to where he knew the two were tussling. "Hey phantom! I'm a tamer! Don't you want to try some tasty tamer meat?"

Zick assumed he'd gotten the phantom's attention when the disturbance abruptly stopped, and the bombo's cries died down into muffled sobs.

He didn't give it a second's thought, he turned straight on his heels and ran like he'd never run before.

Zick huffed and puffed, he'd never really been a good sportsman courtesy of his terrible allergies, and now it was really catching up with him. If he could just make it back the main street, he knew he'd be safe, and hopefully the bombo would be able to make his way back to safety somehow.

Another second passed and Zick began to believe that he might actually make it out alive... that was until he felt ice cold claws sink into the soft flesh of his back. A cry of pain tore from his lips as his forward momentum was halted immediately. The claws sunk deeper into his skin as he was dragged backwards, back into the darkness and away from freedom. He wanted to scream, but all that escaped his lips was a muffled sob as the claws released him and he was thrown roughly against a brick wall. The boy began to panic as one clawed hand clapped over his mouth while the other grabbed a chunk of his dark blue hair. He struggled hysterically against the invisible grip as his mind reeled from the realization that he would probably die here in this trash heap of a place. The phantom tugged Zick's head forward before jerking it back and slamming him into the bricks behind. Zick saw stars as his skull cracked against the stronger material. He wanted, no, _needed_ to throw up. All rational thought left him and all that he could manage to register was the pain, the pain in his back, the pain in his head, the pain in his stomach, the pain everywhere. He didn't even realize that his hair and mouth had been released until he felt the claws again on his arms, pressing him against the wall. Something thick and sticky dripped down his face, it was running into his ears and he didn't like how it felt. He wished he could remember what it was, it seemed important.

Some niggling voice in the back of his mind was telling him to scream, to run, to fight, to do _anything_ to get away. But Zick didn't understand the commands, didn't understand how to scream, didn't understand how to fight properly anymore. His struggles were weak and when he opened his mouth, the best he could manage were little whines of agony.

The pain that had already began to numb itself was growing fainter, and somehow he knew he should be concerned about that. But all he wanted to do was sleep, he was tired, and being awake was too confusing. He blinked a few times, trying to resist the comfort that oblivion offered, but despite his best efforts his eyes slowly drifted closed...  
>only to snap open moments later when the phantom sunk his teeth deep into Zick's left shoulder. Finally, Zick found the power to scream as he flung his mouth open in pure agony. He experienced the worst pain he'd ever felt in his young life as the creature's long, sharp fangs pierced his tissues and muscles to scrape across bone. The sticky liquid was back, but he didn't feel it. He couldn't feel anything besides the intensity of suffering, pain, and death. He knew he would die. In that moment, he even <em>welcomed <em>death.

Just as suddenly as the attack had begun, it was over. The fangs of the malevolent ghost no longer ripped through the twelve year old's body. The phantom was gone, banished by the hand of a mystery samaritan. And if Zick had been conscious, he would have seen the face of his best friend shaking him, heard her screaming at him to wake up, seen her tear-stained face as she ran her hands across his blood-stained face. He would have been able to see Erik, standing stoically by her side, having done away with the phantom moments before.

But Zick was in a far away place, floating peacefully in the arms of nothing.


End file.
